by Gun Brooke
“I need to convey a message to the president, sir,” Caya yelled.
“Don’t…we all. Leave a…message at the official line for grievances. Thank you.”
“Ah!” Caya pressed the sensor again. If she hadn’t tossed her own communicator she would have reached Thea instantly. Now she had to deal with the president’s minions, who clearly couldn’t hear what Caya said or simply hadn’t been told to let her message through. She tried Briar again but only got her message service again. Same went for Adina. Of course so many systems had to be down now when it truly mattered.
Nausea struck her and she wobbled to the side. Caya slapped her hand over her mouth to keep from throwing up in the middle of the crowd. “Tomita,” she whimpered as the light around her became hazy. “Foy…”
“Hey, guys!” She’s going down.” It was Foy’s voice. Strong arms carried her to the side, where she fell into a vortex of scattered images, voices, and nothing that made a lot of sense at first.
“Run, Caya. Now! Run!” The voice was Tomita’s and Caya ran. She was on a moving object and then she was airborne. She saw the number eighteen pass before her eyes, and then pieces of metal singed her skin, layers upon layers of destroyed bulkheads fell around her, and bodies were tossed into space.
Gasping for air, Caya fell, and as she opened her eyes, she was startled to find she was back with her friends. They sat right outside the gate to the jumper that would take them to cube one. Caya followed the chart above her that showed the route of this particular jumper. They were in cube four, and to get to cube one, they had to pass cube eighteen.
“We have to warn them.” Caya stood, staggering to the side before she found her balance.
“That’s what we’re trying to do, yes.” Aldan frowned as he tried to look into her eyes. “You seem a bit out of it, Caya.”
“I’m fine. But you don’t understand. We have to stop at cube eighteen and alert them. They’ve just reattached and something…not quite sure what, is going to cause an explosion. Maybe white garnet. Maybe a malfunction after the attack. People will die.”
“Then hurry,” Tomita called and rushed toward the jumper sitting on the magnetic tracks. “This leaves in a few seconds.”
It was such a wondrous feeling to never be doubted. These three very new friends took her visions at face value, which saved so much time. They barely jumped through the doors before the jumper sped down the track into the tunnel system.
Around them, a few people sat hollow eyed with evident shock. The jumper was surprisingly empty. Perhaps people stayed away from it due to fear of new attacks, alien or domestic. That was probably quite smart, as you would be seriously trapped if a new attack happened and they were right at a cube junction. Caya stood quickly. Tomita rose as well, taking Caya’s hand. “What’s wrong?”
“In my vision, people got tossed into space. The explosion occurred at the junction between cube eighteen and another one. So, which cubes border on cube eighteen apart from four right now? Is the ship’s configuration the same as before the separation?”
“Not sure. But earlier, only three cubes bordered against it, as it was located at the belly of Pathfinder. Four, six, and one.”
“And we’re in four.” Foy regarded the screen above them. “Though only for a few moments longer. Then we will move into eighteen. We’ll stop at a gate just inside. We need to stay on for two more gates before we’re even remotely close to a law-enforcement facility.”
“They’re going to toss us in the—”
A screeching sound made them flinch, and the entire car began to shake. Sparks erupted from the walls.
“It’s in here,” Caya cried out and began dragging at her friends and the people around them. “The white garnet. It’s in the jumper walls. Or on the outside. We need to move back through the train. Come on! Run!” She didn’t care that she was being rough with the dazed people, who looked confused at the now-running material that permeated the walls. It didn’t look like what Adina and Briar had once showed her. Perhaps it was something else, or something mixed with white garnet?
She ran back through the jumper cars, forcing as many as she could to come with her, and eventually the aisle between the seats were crowded with panicked people.
“It’s too crowded here. We need to move back one car at least, or two.” Foy pointed at the one they’d just passed. “I can’t see any of that sparkly, gooey stuff in there. Perhaps we can detach the affected car from the rest of the jumper?”
“It’s worth a shot. These people won’t stand a chance if that stuff explodes.” Aldan looked grimly at Caya and Tomita. “Caya is too valuable for her to risk her life—”
“Don’t even try.” Caya gently shook Tomita’s shoulder. “We’re going to be all hands on deck here. Come on before it’s too late.”
They hurried back, and the closer they came to the car they’d left only minutes ago, the stronger the acrid scent of the foreign agent became.
“Enough. This is as far as we can go without inhaling the damn stuff.” Tomita stopped them. “How do we separate this car from the next? Is there some emergency lever? Or a way to connect with the staff overseeing the jumpers?”
“No idea.” Caya wished she had paid more attention when Korrian spoke of how she came up with the idea for the jumper system. “I know they’re magnetically connected, like they are with the track. We’re going to have to try to break the magnetism between them—or better yet, change the polarity.”
“Make them repel each other,” Aldan said and nodded. “It’s just that we have only seconds to do it.”
Caya looked at the line that showed where one jumper car ended and the next began. She knelt and felt along the black, rubbery border. Peeling it back, she tried to see if there was anywhere she might flip a switch.
“It’s too late.” Tomita stood now and pulled Caya to her feet. Tomita and the two men stood on one side of the border and Caya on the other. The jumper began shaking more violently, and Caya tried to move farther toward the front, to pull the others back with her, away from the disintegrating car, but Tomita shook her head. “No. Listen to me. It’s too late!”
A loud rumble just behind her friends made Caya scream in panic. “No. No! Jump.” She leaned forward, clawing for them, screaming their names. She managed to grip Foy’s sleeve, but he shocked her by shoving her hard across her chest without actually touching her. Telekinetic. The word struck her as she flew through the air backward. She thought she heard a loud whooshing sound before pain exploded throughout her and everything went black.
Chapter Twenty
“I don’t want any of your bloody excuses. I want her found!” Thea growled and slammed both palms against her desk, making them sting.
“Madam President, we have intel that she was on a jumper heading for cube eighteen when it—” Commander KahSandra went rigid as Thea rounded the desk.
“I don’t give a damn about your intel. I want you to search every part of Pathfinder and find Caya. She may well have had time to get off that jumper—or perhaps she was never on it. She would have foreseen what was going to happen. She was alive to have visions of the attack—and she tried to warn us about something. If that incompetent idiot hadn’t prevented her from reaching me, she could have been back here. Alive. And I have to believe she still is. She might have had a vision of the attack against the jumper system as well.” Shaking hard, but ignoring her reaction, Thea motioned for the commander and her ensigns to leave.
Alone in her office, she fell to her knees on the floor, every last remnant of strength leaving her in a gush. She bent forward with her arms around her waist, trying to hold herself together as violent sobs threatened to tear her apart. Nothing before in her life had brought her such torturous agony. Not Hadler’s abuse or her father’s dismissal, and not even the loss of her mother. Caya was part of her soul. She would lose the biggest and best part of herself if Caya were gone. How could she face Briar again if she had to tell her that her little s
ister was dead? As the one in charge of Caya’s incarceration, ultimately Thea was responsible.
“Please,” she whispered to the empty room. She rarely prayed, but now the words poured from her cold lips in a husky, broken whisper. “For the love of Thee, my Creator, I pledge my soul to Thee, I give my days and nights to Thy realm. I vow to carry Thy light. I promise honor to Thy children, and my eternal love and gratitude will be Thine.” Thea remained still, staring at the screens that showed the realignment of twenty cubes…and a kilometer away from Pathfinder, what was left of cube eighteen.
Fury began as a small flame just below her sternum and then grew steadily until an inferno tore through her at the sight of the destroyed cube. It looked like a large space-dwelling predator had dug its claws into it and ripped off almost an entire side, then buried its fangs into it and shredded the decks like they were made of paper. If she squinted, she could make out small dots around the cube, and it sickened her to realize some of them were her people, floating frozen in space—men, women, and children that she was elected to serve and protect, to bring with her to a new, safer world.
Thea knew she should be grateful that not all of cube eighteen’s passengers were sucked out. Emergency bulkheads had slid into place. Yet, some survivors had sustained severe damage, and the casualty toll would be steep. The mere thought that one of the floating dots on the screen might be the woman she loved was unbearable.
Thea stood slowly and began reading the information, one screen at a time. When the jumper car had exploded right at the junction between cubes four and eighteen, it had triggered a chain reaction that tore it away from the rest of Pathfinder. Whereas the emergency bulkhead seals had worked on cube four’s side, several of them did not on cube eighteen. So far, her subordinates estimated that more than ten thousand passengers had lost their lives from being sucked into space. The rest were being ferried over from what was left intact of cube eighteen right now. Thea had given orders that as many as possible of the dead floating in space were to be retrieved if possible. Had this happened earlier during their journey, they would have been jettisoned in body covers, or cremated, depending on their families’ wishes. Now, the surviving family members would have the additional option of burying their dead on Gemocon, as they were not far away from their destination.
Thea smoothed down her hair, making sure the chignon was in place, before walking over to the closet by the door. With jerky movements, she yanked her long black jacket off its hanger. She put it on and examined her reflection in the mirror. Straightening the seams of her dress, she then adjusted the ten rows of pearls around her neck. A quick touchup of her makeup made her look impeccable and strong. She needed every bit of her strength now to make it through the day. She would not allow herself to crumble. As the president, she was not allowed humanoid frailty.
Thea opened the door, and her presidential guards lined up without a word. They walked around her, backs straight, eyes calm and vigilant.
“We’re going to the hospital in cube eleven,” Thea said to her assistant, who had showed up like a ghost next to her. “I’ll meet the chief there and visit some of the patients from cube eighteen.”
“Yes, Madam President.” Her assistant tapped furiously at her tablet.
“I also want to visit engineering and the bridge.”
“Yes, Madam President.”
As they strode toward her private jumper, Thea allowed the sound of their marching feet to calm her. She needed the steady cadence to get her through this.
*
Caya coughed and tried to open her eyes. Every time she did, fine dust settled on her corneas and she closed them quickly again. She felt around her. Metal. Coarse metal on the floor and on the walls. She dared to crawl a bit farther and came across another type of alloy, like a rod. But the rod was stuck to the floor and emanated some sort of heat. She couldn’t figure out what it was, but it seemed to be quite long. She kept crawling, eyes closed hard.
“Hello?” Caya called out and coughed again. “Anyone there? Tomita! Foy!” Where were they? Were they all right? “Aldan!” The last thing she remembered was how they’d stood at the line bordering between two jumper cars as they neared cube eighteen. What had happened after that was a blur. Surely the memory of someone pushing her backward couldn’t be right? Her last clear memory was how they had told everyone to go to the back of the jumper…Yes. That was it. They had looked for a way to separate the cars because of the corrosive agent they’d seen. She tried to remember, but after she was pushed back, it all went black.
“Tomita? Aldan? Foy? Please, anyone?” She was weeping now, because Caya knew deep inside that there was a lot to mourn. She could feel it. “Answer me!”
“Hello?” She heard another weak voice, far away. It sounded like a man. Was it Foy or Aldan? She didn’t think so. He sounded different.
“I’m here.” Caya crawled toward the sound on some cold metal floor. Are you all right?” Caya called out back.
“I’m stuck. Can you reach me?” It had to be a man. His voice was low.
“I’ll try. Where are we, sir?”
“In one of the jumper tunnels in cube four.”
Caya pushed herself along the rod, which she now realized had to be one of the magnetic tracks. So, they never made it to cube eighteen? Then where were Tomita, Foy, and Aldan?
Caya closed her eyes and listened into her mind, trying to conjure up a minivision of her friends while she crawled toward the trapped man. Oddly, she saw nothing. Nothing! Just blank space. Yes, that was it. Space. Caya shivered. She saw outer space with distant stars and other celestial bodies when she focused on Tomita, Foy, and Aldan. What did that even mean?
Dust filled her mouth and nose, and she sneezed several times as she pulled herself along the track. Other than her groaning efforts to reach the injured man, silence surrounded her. Had there been an explosion? Was cube four dead in the water? Perhaps she and the man were the only survivors caught in a closed-off part of the ship. Dread trickled down her spine. Thea. What if the rest of Pathfinder was destroyed? She’d never reached Thea and hadn’t had a chance to tell her…anything. Perhaps Thea had been lost with the rest of the ship, not knowing how loved she was or how Caya regretted not letting her know when it still mattered, when it might have actually changed something for the better between them. Now, Thea might never know how all-important she was to Caya, how empty and hollow her life was without her.
Caya sobbed and then drew in deep gulps of air, not sure it helped. She tried to determine if the oxygen level was normal. All her gasping for air made her even more light-headed, but she didn’t think there was a leak. Pushing her fear of having lost Thea and everyone else she cared about to the back of her mind, she kept crawling. At least she might be able to do something for the man up ahead.
“Are you still there, miss?” the man asked, his voice weaker now.
“I’m getting closer. What’s your name?”
“Olion.” The man coughed, probably affected by the fine dust as well.
“You’re Gemosian?”
“Yes.” He sounded cautious.
“I’m Caya.” She pulled with both hands at the same time now. Using one hand at a time helped her move faster, but her arms ached from overexertion.
“What’s trapping you? Can you tell?” Caya wanted Olion to continue talking. His voice, as weak as it was, helped her not panic.
“One of the magnetic beams from the ceiling must’ve fallen on top of my legs. I can feel the humming. I’m not on the track though. That’s a good thing, or the ceiling beam might have pressed down hard enough to sever my legs. The magnetism in these tracks is powerful.”
“I’ll do my best to help you.” Caya didn’t want to think about having to leave him to get help. And if they were lost in some piece of wreckage, they were on their own. Perhaps people thought they were dead and had left them to float inside a debris field until they perished. Hating how she conjured up horrible images, Caya focused on Oli
on. “You sound like you know a lot about the jumpers, Olion. You an engineer?”
“Yes. Well, almost. I still have a year left at the university. I’m hoping to get my degree once we arrive at Gemocon. I think I can be of use, and it will make it possible for me to help my family to a better future.”
Olion sounded so much like Briar that tears rose in Caya’s eyes. She blinked them away and they ran down her cheeks. “We’ll make sure you get that chance. How old are you?” He couldn’t be as old as his husky voice suggested. It must be the dust that made it sound rough.
“Twenty.”
“Oh, me too. I had a birthday two months ago. You must be very smart to already have gone to university and have only one year until you graduate.” Caya was impressed.
“I skipped ahead a few years when I was fifteen.” Olion coughed again and moaned louder.
“What’s wrong?” Caya tried to go faster.
“My knee. I think it’s fractured. The beam has started to shift toward the tracks, and it’s pulling at my leg.
On a positive note, Olion sounded much closer, but if the magnetic beam was tugging at him, he might be crushed against the track. Caya had no way of knowing how long the beam was, and if it slid into place along the tracks it could injure her as well. She shook off the sudden dread. “Talk to me, Olion. I don’t have far to go now.”
“You should stay clear. I think the beam will go at any moment now. It might tear my leg right off and—”
“Shut up. Don’t you dare surrender to such thoughts. I’ll be with you in just a few moments.”
“All right.” Olion sounded weaker but kept talking. “That was a brave thing your friends did. “
“What?” Caya nearly forgot to haul herself along the track.
